Call centres and public service

People in call centres get a bad reputation.

Everyone hates getting cold-called, that annoying person trying to sell you something you don't want JUST as you sit down for tea. And yeah, that can be annoying, but you've gotta remember: they're a person too.

That person will get paid pittance for spending a whole day getting yelled at, hung up on and messed around by the people they are made to call, and at the end of a day of abuse, they then have to get on with their own lives, their own troubles, adding to all of that by being rude to them over the phone just seems kind of unnecessary doesn't it? How would you like it if you got yelled at for doing a job you hated, just to earn enough to get by?

And once in a while, every one of us will need to call up a customer service number and ask for help, to these same kinds of people. Will being rude get you what you want? Or will you be nice, but forceful, and have everyone come out of the call happy with a job well done?

What brings me to this is hearing stories from family and friends of cold callers, and "useless" service people when they call helplines. But in my experience, I've never had such a problem, I'm always calm and polite, and so are they (they want to keep that job after all), and as such, every time I call up such a number I seem to come out of it with what I want.

What I think I'm getting at here is: be nice to people, and see what happens, if someone's annoying you or stressing you out, take a moment and imagine the kind of problems they're having too. Everyone has their own lives, their own joys and problems, and it's important that we all remember that.